🐂 top news
Web3 Foundation opened applications for Cohort 5 of Decentralized Voices.
Turtle enabled KSM transfers between Kusama's Relay Chain and Asset Hub.
Alice und Bob published the Polkadot Treasury Report for Q2 2025.
Invarch announced its death as a parachain with its parachain lease transferring to Xode and crowdloan DOT releasing August 29th.
WebZero showed a sneak peek of BlockSpace Stadium, an app for anyone to see the progress of projects from the Synergy hackathon, for teams to manage milestone submissions, and for reviewers to approve milestone payouts.
Coins.ph integrated Polkadot Asset Hub USDT and USDC for faster, cheaper stablecoin transactions in the Philippines.
Liebre Pay is in development as a Polkadot-based payment app supporting USDC, USDT, and DOT with one-click and batch payment features for small businesses. The developer is seeking feedback.
Bifrost built the first verifiable on-chain oracle, made possible through their smart integration of Hyperbridge.
⭕️ ecosystem
Energy Web X launched three new marketplace pools, requiring compute providers to migrate from expired pools.
Astar Snap Wallet on MetaMask will be deprecated in September 2025, requiring users to migrate to supported Substrate or EVM wallets.
Bifrost upgraded to runtime v20000, adding vDOT transfers and SLPx support to Asset Hub with enhanced bridging compatibility and delegated voting features.
StellaSwap's veSTELLA auto-strategies yielded over 150% for Epoch #3, tripling returns since Epoch #1.
Hyperbridge crossed $1M in volume.
Hydration launched incentives for TRAC offering up to 69% APR in the Omnipool.
Phala published Build Your Private AI Stack – Safe, Easy, and Vibecoding.
Frequency reached 2 million new user activations.
Mythos Chain launched the Mythos Community Hub.
Polkadot cores usage and functionalities have been updated on the Polkadot Wiki to reflect changes brought by asynchronous backing, elastic scaling, and coretime.
⚙️ technical
Polkadot SDK updated to stable2506, enabling ParachainBlockData to support multiple blocks at once, allowing Rollups to package multiple blocks into one PoV.
Polkadot-JS Apps updated to v0.161.1, resolving apps version caching issues amongst others.
Polkadot-JS Extension updated to v0.61.4.
Polkadot-JS API updated to v16.4.2.
XCM is now available for testing in PolkaVM smart contracts via a new precompile (live now on the Polkadot testnet).
🏛️ governance
For more information on Polkadot governance statistics, check out the Polkadot Dune governance dashboard.
🆕 new
Ref 1680: Retroactively funding SubWallet development from August 2024 to March 2025 (~$1.7M)
Ref 1681: Instructing the Polkadot Community Foundation to sign a strategic cooperation agreement with Hong Kong’s Office for Attracting Strategic Enterprises (~$37K)
Ref 1682: Funding Snowbridge development for the next year (832.51K DOT)
🕓 confirming
Ref 1637: Funding Milestone 2 of the development of Cyborg Network (~$137K)
Ref 1638: Funding OneBlock+ and PaperMoon’s 2025 developer education & community expansion plan (~$376K)
Ref 1651: Topping up the Polkadot System Parachains Collator bounty (~43K DOT)
👍🏾 passing
Ref 1640: Topping up the Polkadot Assurance Legion bounty (500K DOT)
Ref 1660: Requesting the Web3 Foundation to create a Polkadot Agents program
👎🏾 failing
Ref 1639: Funding the development of Papi Simulator, a developer and playground (21,960 DOT)
Ref 1642: Funding Colorful Notion for 9 months of Dune integration work (~$610K)
Ref 1644: Funding LimeChain for phase 2 of devGround (~$172K)
Ref 1650: Funding the development of the Polkadot BD Hub ($255k)
Ref 1662: Refilling the UX Bounty for Q3 2025 (~67K DOT)
Ref 1666: Funding an Inter Miami CF rewards program ($250K)
Ref 1667: Funding the development of a Merkle Mountain Belt, a novel data structure that improves upon and replaces the Merkle Mountain Range such as used in BEEFY ($340K + 42K DOT)
Ref 1670: Funding the development of Pixelproof, a decentralized photo storage app ($225K)
Ref 1672: Funding Polkadot Africa for builder and community growth ($352.8K)
Ref 1676: Funding academic research on Polkadot’s OpenGov ($50K)
Ref 1679: Funding the development of Clarys.AI ($256.1K)
✅ approved
Ref 1634: Sponsoring Politecnico di Milano’s Blockchain & Web3 Observatory (~$59K)
Ref 1641: Funding 12 months maintenance for ParaSpell XCM tools (~$148K)
❌ rejected
Ref 1626: Rebranding DOT to JAM in 2026
Ref 1627: Funding the Polkadot Art Space ($34K)
Ref 1631: Funding the development of Pixelproof ($575K)
Ref 1635: Hire an ecosystem talent lead ($130K + 3K DOT)
Ref 1677: Funding the development of a Polkadot Builder Map (1K DOT)
💰 opportunities
Web3 Foundation is hiring for several positions, including Technical Educator, Senior Investor Relations Manager, and Senior Software Engineer.
Fill out the OpenJobs form to be added to the directory so potential employers can find you.
Parity is hiring. From Runtime Engineers to Cloud Security to Technical Program Managers, the Parity job board is constantly updated.
Acurast opened applications for its Collator Program, offering performance-based rewards and delegated stakes from the Acurast Association.
📺 what to watch and listen to
FIFA Rivals Ultimate $130 Loot Pack Opening with Ben and Jay by The Kus.
Kusama Season coming? Polkadot Apps under development by Alice und Bob.
Friday DOT News Pump (Most Contrarian Trade in Crypto? 😳 Polkadot Rockets on 2 KEY verticals: DeFi & Gaming).
Interview with Parity about the Polkadot Deployment Portal (Eliminating Polkadot Painpoints for Maximum Advantage - Space Monkeys 201) by The Kus.
Gavin Wood on Polkadot JAM, replacing Proof-of-Stake, new Polkadot-native stablecoin by Alice und Bob.
📖 what to read
Inside JAM: Daniel Cukier on implementing Polkadot’s next big upgrade by Polkadot blog.
So, economic security was a meme? by goku.
How does Polkadot SDK run EVM-compatible smart contracts? by OneBlock+.
What are Extrinsics? by DavidBrain.
Thank you for taking the DOT leap!
